It is about this same time of year that 7-year-old Buddy and his 60-something best friend bake fruitcakes for 31 of their very best friends, whom they barely know. And so two other friends, one of Broadway acclaim, the other a Hollywood star, will present to Auburn - a city neither has ever visited - their own holiday fruitcake of sorts.
Photo provided
Patricia Neal and Joel Vig will perform Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory” this weekend at the Auburn Public Theater.
Patricia Neal and Joel Vig will perform Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory” this weekend at the Auburn Public Theater.
Academy Award-winning actress Patricia Neal and Broadway veteran Joel Vig will perform at three sold-out shows at the Auburn Public Theater next weekend a theatrical reading of Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory,” a short story of holiday nostalgia from the author of “Breakfast at Tiffany's” and “In Cold Blood.”
The tales of how the theatrical performance came to life, and of how a small little theater nestled along a Finger Lake came to land such big-time talent as Vig and Neal, are as endearing and neatly tied together as if they were penned by Capote himself.
It all started in North Dakota.
There was an elite party at the University of North Dakota, thrown for Capote, a visiting speaker. The guest of honor was seated on a couch one spot from the arm, Vig recalled. As an undergrad, Vig had not been invited to the party. But it was on that couch that Vig first met one of the few authors of the time to command a celebrity status typically reserved for movie stars and famous faces.
“I would say I was definitely a little star struck,” said Vig, who was about 21 at the time. He had long been a fan of Capote's writing, but it was then, he said, that the idea came to him to someday honor the author's work in theatrical form.
“He has such a great ear for the music of speech, the music of putting words together,” said Vig, an original cast member in Broadway's “Hairspray.”
It was not until years later that Vig met Patricia Neal, who had her own connection to Capote's work - a role in the film adaptation of “Breakfast at Tiffany's” - and convinced her to take the “A Christmas Memory” performance Vig had scripted on the road.
For more than 20 years, the pair has performed the piece around the world, while sailing up the Amazon River, at sea en route to Russia, in Alaska, New Orleans and Hollywood. Their last performance was in Monroeville, Ala., where Capote once lived. It took place in the courthouse that served as the backdrop for the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Capote's friend Harper Lee, who also attended the performance.
“It was kind of an amazing coming home for this little piece,” Vig said.
Capote's story of an old woman and a young boy preparing for Christmas comes next to Auburn, of all places.
“It's such a thrill to have someone of Patricia's stature and pedigree on our humble stage,” said Angela Daddabbo, artistic director at the Auburn Public Theater. “We're humbled.”
Neal became an internationally recognized star for her roles on stage and on screen. She won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1964 for her role in “Hud.”
When a series of strokes left Neal paralyzed, Joanne O'Connor, an Auburn native who was in seventh grade at the time, added a prayer just for Neal to her daily requests. Years later, after Neal had recovered and become a champion for stroke rehabilitation, O'Connor moved to New York City for work and became friends with her childhood idol.
It was O'Connor who suggested to Daddabbo that Neal and Vig bring their Christmas performance to Auburn.
“It was the dead of summer, the end of August, and we were talking about a play about Christmas,” said Daddabbo, who first met O'Connor at a concert in Skaneateles that same day. “And I could see it all coming together.”
Daddabbo said she had recently read Capote's story, adored the tale he had woven and could picture Capote's Christmas on Auburn's stage.
“Eggbeaters whirl, spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar, vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting, nose-tingling odors saturate the kitchen, suffuse the house, drift out to the world on puffs of chimney smoke,” as Capote wrote. “Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whisky, bask on the window sills and shelves.”
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
The tales of how the theatrical performance came to life, and of how a small little theater nestled along a Finger Lake came to land such big-time talent as Vig and Neal, are as endearing and neatly tied together as if they were penned by Capote himself.
It all started in North Dakota.
There was an elite party at the University of North Dakota, thrown for Capote, a visiting speaker. The guest of honor was seated on a couch one spot from the arm, Vig recalled. As an undergrad, Vig had not been invited to the party. But it was on that couch that Vig first met one of the few authors of the time to command a celebrity status typically reserved for movie stars and famous faces.
“I would say I was definitely a little star struck,” said Vig, who was about 21 at the time. He had long been a fan of Capote's writing, but it was then, he said, that the idea came to him to someday honor the author's work in theatrical form.
“He has such a great ear for the music of speech, the music of putting words together,” said Vig, an original cast member in Broadway's “Hairspray.”
It was not until years later that Vig met Patricia Neal, who had her own connection to Capote's work - a role in the film adaptation of “Breakfast at Tiffany's” - and convinced her to take the “A Christmas Memory” performance Vig had scripted on the road.
For more than 20 years, the pair has performed the piece around the world, while sailing up the Amazon River, at sea en route to Russia, in Alaska, New Orleans and Hollywood. Their last performance was in Monroeville, Ala., where Capote once lived. It took place in the courthouse that served as the backdrop for the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Capote's friend Harper Lee, who also attended the performance.
“It was kind of an amazing coming home for this little piece,” Vig said.
Capote's story of an old woman and a young boy preparing for Christmas comes next to Auburn, of all places.
“It's such a thrill to have someone of Patricia's stature and pedigree on our humble stage,” said Angela Daddabbo, artistic director at the Auburn Public Theater. “We're humbled.”
Neal became an internationally recognized star for her roles on stage and on screen. She won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1964 for her role in “Hud.”
When a series of strokes left Neal paralyzed, Joanne O'Connor, an Auburn native who was in seventh grade at the time, added a prayer just for Neal to her daily requests. Years later, after Neal had recovered and become a champion for stroke rehabilitation, O'Connor moved to New York City for work and became friends with her childhood idol.
It was O'Connor who suggested to Daddabbo that Neal and Vig bring their Christmas performance to Auburn.
“It was the dead of summer, the end of August, and we were talking about a play about Christmas,” said Daddabbo, who first met O'Connor at a concert in Skaneateles that same day. “And I could see it all coming together.”
Daddabbo said she had recently read Capote's story, adored the tale he had woven and could picture Capote's Christmas on Auburn's stage.
“Eggbeaters whirl, spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar, vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices it; melting, nose-tingling odors saturate the kitchen, suffuse the house, drift out to the world on puffs of chimney smoke,” as Capote wrote. “Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whisky, bask on the window sills and shelves.”
Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net
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former resident of auburn wrote on Nov 29, 2009 6:31 PM:
I hope some of you take pics of her and Joel Vig and post them here at the Citizen's website. That would be great! "